Office of the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

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This email is being sent to all members of the Baruch College faculty.

For an archive of announcements sent from the Associate Provost beginning June 2011, click here.

April 15, 2016

Minimizing Unconscious Bias: A workshop by Dr. Robbin Chapman

Dear Faculty and Staff,

You are invited to attend a workshop titled “Minimizing Unconscious Bias” delivered by Dr. Robbin Chapman, Associate Provost and Academic Director of Diversity and Inclusion, and Lecturer in the Education Department at Wellesley College.

The event will be held Monday, May 16, in the William and Anita Newman Conference Center, Room 750, and will include:

Unconscious biases are a fact of life. Everyone harbors them and takes them into the workplace. They include prejudices we have but are unaware of, and mental shortcuts based on social norms and stereotypes. Biases can be based on skin color, gender, age, height, weight, introversion versus extroversion, marital and parental status, disability status (for example, the use of a wheelchair or a cane), foreign accents, where someone went to college, and more. If you can name it, there is probably an unconscious bias for it. These biases cause us to make decisions in favor of one group to the detriment of others and naturally creep into the workplace.[1]

The learning objectives of Dr. Chapman’s presentation are (i) gaining an understanding of unconscious bias, (ii) triggers for bias filtering, and (iii) how to monitor and plan for actions to minimize the negative impact of bias errors.

Dr. Chapman provides strategic leadership for equity and diversity efforts. She has consulted with many organizations, including Boston University, Harvard University, HERC, MIT, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity, Northeast Regional Computing Program, Massachusetts STEM Summit, University of North Carolina, USDA, and Vanderbilt University. Read her full bio.

Participants are asked to take the IAT (Implicit Association Test) on the topic of either race or gender prior to attending the workshop. This will not only familiarize us with how our conscious minds can differ from our unconscious minds, but will also give us an opportunity to experience the ways in which our views of our prejudices sometimes differ from actuality (if the two are in conflict, this is not a judgment). Your IAT results are confidential, are not viewed by Baruch College, and will not be discussed as part of the workshop or facilitated activity. The IAT can be taken here.